In the Horn of Africa, a minerals boom has begun and the tyrannical leadership of Eritrea, which regularly imprisons and tortures people on account of their religious faith, stands to reap a windfall of profits. Will the developed world - and the United States and Canada in particular - turn a blind eye to this repression in exchange for the modern-day equivalent of 30 pieces of silver?
As Libya's dictator struggles to keep his grip on power, one of his pet projects appears to be moving ahead at the African Union, which took initial steps Tuesday toward creating his grand plan: the United States of Africa.
Ronald Reagan won the Cold War, but to achieve victory he had to convince some squishes that the war was still on. Reagan's detractors habitually dismissed him as a "cold warrior," an elderly kook frightfully and dangerously behind the times. Fortunately for the cause of freedom, the Gipper wasn't afraid to take on world opinion, and in so doing he changed the world.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy told singer-activist Bono on Sunday that he will spearhead efforts to force companies extracting raw materials in Africa to say how much they pay local regimes.
Last Saturday evening, the weeklong referendum on self-determination for southern Sudan ended. Polling stations closed, ballot boxes were sealed and over the coming weeks, the vote will be tallied. The result, which is expected in mid-February, seems certain to split Africa's largest country and create the world's newest nation.
Lily pads and purple flowers dot one corner of the watering hole. Bright green algae covers another. Two women collect water in plastic jugs while a cattle herder bathes nearby.
Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has alarmed human rights activists and non-Muslims in the south of his country by saying that strict Islamic law will be enforced in the north if the south secedes in a referendum next month.
Lebanon hosts about 200,000 foreign maids. Like other migrant domestic workers around the world, the women frequently are subjected to conditions that local activists call "legal slavery."
When a humanitarian worker asked Ajak Dau Akech in 1988 why he fled civil war in Sudan and walked 1,000 perilous miles to a refugee camp in Ethiopia, the boy answered with words few 8-year-olds would know.
